Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-02-24
x IN G.
Solomon S Mines.
CHAPTER 7.
BY II. RIDER HAGGARD.

wonder what sort OF a history it will be
when l have done it, if 1 ever come to the
end of the trip! L have done good many
things in my life, which seems long one to
me, owing to my having begun so young
perhaps. At an age when other boys are at
school, [ was earning my living as a trader
in the old colony. / have been trading,
hunting, fighting, or mining ever since. And
yet it is only eight months ago that / made
my pile. 1t is big pile now L have got it
don't know yet how big-but don't think
would go through the last fifteen or sixteen
months again for it; no, not if / knew that 1
should come out safe at the end, pile and
all. But then am timid mo- and don't
like violence, and am pretty sick of advent
ure. wonder why am going to write this
book: it is not in my line. [ am not a
literary man, though very devoted to the Old
Testament and also to the 'Ingoldsby Lee
geTfus." Let me try and set down my rea-
sons, just to see if have any.
First reason: Because Sir Henry Curtis
and Captain John Good asked me to.
Second reason: Because / am laid up here
at Durham with the pain and trouble of my
left leg. Ever since that COMPOUNDED lion
got hold of me l have been liable to it, and
Its being rather bad just now makes me limp
more than ever, There must be some poison
IN the lions teeth, otherwise how is it that
which your wounds are healed they break
out again, generally, mark you, at the same
time of year that you got your mauling? 1t
is hard thing that when one has shot sixty
five lions as have in the course of my life,
that the sixty -SiXth should chew your, leg
like q quid Of tobacco. 1t breaks the routine
of the thing, and putting other conSidera-
tons aside, L am an orderly man and don't
like that. This is by the way.
Third reason: Because [ want my boy,
Harry, who is over there at the hospital in
London studying to become a doctor, to have
something to amuSe him and keep him out
of mischief for a week or so. Hospital work
must sometime pail and get rather dull for
even Of cutting up dead bodies, there must
come safety, and as this history won't be
dull, whatever else it may be, it may put
little life into things for day or TWO while
he is reading it.
Fourth reason and last: Because am go
ing to tell the strangest story that l know
Of Lit may seem queer thing to say that,
especially considering that there is no woman
IN it-eXcept Foulata. Stop though! there
IS GagaOOla, if she was a w pman and not
fiend. But she was hundred at least, ard
therefore not manageable, so I don't. count
her. At any rate, | can safely say that their
is not a petticoat in the whole history. Well.
had better come to the yoke. It's stiff
place. and | feel as though | were begged I'D
TO the axle. But ''sutjes, sutjes," as the
Beers say Q'm sure don't know how they
spell it,, softly does it. a strong team will
come through at last, that is if they amt too
poor. You will never do anything with poor
oxen. Now to begin.
i, Allan Quatermain, of Durham, Natal,
gentleman. make oath and say-that's how L
began my deposition before the magistrate,
about poor Khiva's and Ventyogel'S sad
deaths; but somehow it doesn't seem quite
the right way to begin book. And, besides,
am [ gentleman? What is gentleman? l
don't quite know, and yet have had to do
with niggers-no, I'll scratch that word
''niggers" out, for / don't like it. I've known
natives who are, and so you'll say, Harry,
my boy, before you're done with this tale,
and l have known mean whites with lots of
money and fresh out from home, too, who
amt
Well, at any rate, was born gentleman,
though I've been nothing but poor travel
ing trader and hunter all my life. Wheth-
er | have remained so L know not, you must
judge of that. Heaven knows I've tried.
I've killed many men III my ae, but have
never slain wantOnly or stai1 my hand in
innocent blood, only in self-,, ense. The
Almighty gave us our lives and [ suppose
he meant us to defend them, at least / have
always acted on that, and l hope it won't be
brought up against me when my clock
strikes. There, there, it is a cruel and
wicked world, and for timid man / have
been mixed up in a deal of slaughter. L
can't tell the rights of it, but at any rate
have never stolen, though [ once cheated a
Kafir out of herd of cattle. But then he
had done me dirty turn, and it has troubled
me ever since into the bargain.
We'll it's eighteen months or so ago since l
first met Sir Henry Curtis and Captain
Good, and it was in this way. l had been
up elephant hunting beyond Bamangwato,
and had had bad luck. Everything went
wrong that trip, and to top up with got the
fever badly. SO soon I was well enough
trekked down to the Diamond Fields, sold
such ivory as | had, and also my wagon and
oxen, discharged my hunters, and took the
postcard to the Cape. After spending
week in Cape Town, finding that they over
charged me at the hotel, and having seen
everything there was to see, including the
botanical gardens, which seemed to me like
iy to confer great benefit on the country,
anu lAOf 1AOuSCS VI WHICH ca
pect will do nothing of the Sort determin-
ed to go on back to Natal by the Dunkeld,
then lying in TIE docks waiting for the Edin-
burgh Castle due in from England. / took
my berth and went aboard, and that after
noon the Natal passengers from the Edin-
burgh Castle transhipped, and we weighed
and put out to sea.
Among the passengers who came on board
there were two who excited my curiosity.
One, man about thirty, was one Of the
biggest-chested and longest-armed men L
ever saw. He had yellow hair, big yellow
beard, clear cut features, and large gray
eyes set deep in his head. 1never saw
fner-looking man, and somehow he remind
ed me of an ancient Dane. Not that know
much of ancient Danes though l remember
a modern Dane who did me out of ten
pounds; but [ remember once seeing a pict-
nre OF some Of those gentry, who l take it
were kind of white ZuluSs They were
drinking out of big horns. and their long
hair hung down their backs, and as / looked
at my friend standing there by the comsan-
snp-Iaddar fbouubt hot only LOT his